The Season That Was......2010/11

St Neots Town 11

Felixstowe & Walton 0

FA Vase Round One (2010/11 season)

The big news in the week was St Neots’ signing of former Aston Villa striker Stefan Moore from Halesowen Town for a ‘five figure’ transfer fee. Stefan in his first full season in non league football scored 39 goals for Halesowen winning the Zamaretto Premier League Golden boot for 2009/10 in the process. Within three minutes playing time of his debut for St Neots he had scored and he added a further three goals to his tally by half time as St Neots led by a record breaking nine goals to nil. It was inevitable that the tempo would drop after the break but Felixstowe refused to give up despite the score line and to their great credit they restricted St Neots to just two further goals in the second half. A series of substitutions did little to sustain the electric pace of the first half but this was to be St Neots biggest victory in any football since 1968/69 season. Although Moore rightly takes the limelight he was greatly assisted by an outstanding all round team performance and especially by Shane Tolley whose second hat trick for the club took his personal tally to thirteen in just eight appearances.

In the most dramatic of starts to a football match the first six minutes of play contained three goals for St Neots and the sad sight of the visiting goalkeeper Liam Jones being stretchered off with a suspected broken ankle. That happed after just seventy seconds in St Neots first attack when the keeper collided heavily with Will Fordham at a corner. It took five minutes for the injured player to be stabilized and removed from the pitch and replacement goalkeeper James Waters came on and within three minutes saw a brilliant lob by Stefan Moore fly over his head and inside the far post. Less than a minute later it was 2-0 as Lewis Hilliard miss hit a shot across the face of goal and Lewis Webb rose to head home and after eleven minutes Shane Tolley celebrated his UCL award as September leading scorer by drifting past two defenders to score with a well placed shot. After 19 minutes a superbly unselfish short pass by Moore set up Shane Tolley for his second goal and seven minutes later Hilliard was brought down on the edge of the area and Will Fordham’s free kick was too hot for the keeper who got his hands to the ball but could not hold it. Moore then hit a post as St Neots piled on the pressure but his second and St Neots sixth goal was probably the pick of the lot. Fordham was the provider with a delightful short pass to Stefan Moore who accelerated past a statuesque defender and rounded the keeper to tap in from close range. When Moore was tripped by Martin Calver in the penalty area it was almost inevitable that he would pick himself up to complete his hat trick as he scored from the penalty kick with a tap in after his first effort had been parried by the unlucky Waters. Two more goals in the three minutes before the break from Lewis Hilliard and Stefan Moore made it 9-0 at the break.

Felixstowe looked far more determined after half time and Adam Hampson had their first real shot of the match after 49 minutes well saved by the previous spectatorial Luke McShane and two minutes later Dan Spencer missed a gilt edged chance with a misdirected header. However, St Neots continued to create chances and from a Rob Hughes corner Will Fordham planted a header onto the roof of the net. After 62 minutes it was Fordham again the creator with a shrewd through pass to Shane Tolley whose pace took him past the last defender to send the score into double figures and with Tony Scully and Roy Essendoh on for Lewis Hilliard and Adam Jones new boy Moore was then handed a midfield role. He responded by laying on the last of the eleven goals for Dan Jacob and that was deserved reward for another impressive performance. Roy Essendoh almost became the seventh scorer for St Neots but his header was cleared off the line by substitute George MacCallum.

St Neots Town: McShane, Jones, Hyem (M), Webb, Fuff, Fordham, Hilliard, Hughes, Moore, Tolley, Jacob.

Subs: Essendoh (for Jones 59 mins), Scully (for Hilliard 65 mins), French (for Hughes 73 mins) Haniver & Trebes.

Man of the match: Stefan Moore